We all know many people have to look at computer screens for large portions of the work day. But it’s the amount of time we spend on screens (television, computer, tablet and phones) at home that’s wreaking havoc on our brains, our bodies, and our personal relationships.

As technology has crept into everyday life and across all activities, it has transformed the mediums by which we learn and interact, as well the kinds of information we consume. While we know there has been a fundamental shift in how we receive our information within every age group and demographic in the U.S., research is only just beginning to show us what those changes in consumption mean for the human brain. And to date, research results have been mixed due to the lack of information we’ve been able to collect. But whether use of devices is good or bad for our brains long-term, one thing is for certain, they are literally changing the way we think – and develop.

But the biggest shocks in research are coming from analyses on young children, whose brains are developing, connecting millions of neurons each second. In fact, newly released research suggests that the brains of infants and young children show significant differences between kids who don't use/use (or are exposed to) smartphones, tablets and/or video games more than seven hours a day – which might seem extreme, but it’s still five hours less than the average adult in their life. The same study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that even children who consume two hours of media a day have lower thinking and language scoreson tests than their peers who didn’t.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Because screen time appears to be addictive, the need for parents to set strong resolutions about how they intend on using devices needs to begin early. Particularly because – just like any addictive substance – the NIH foundthat parent’s use of devices will become a vicious cycle for their children and their children. Even without this new information, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) felt the need to rewrite its most recent guidelines of screen time for children. The AAP recommendationssuggests parents, “avoid digital media use, except video chatting, in children younger than 18 to 24 months ,” and for the best toys, “go back to the basics.” For children between the ages of two and five, the AAP recommends limiting screen time to one hour per day, and proactively use less of their own devices while they interact with children of any age.

And while apps and devices can teach some problem-solving skills or basic literacy, numeracy and association in young people, the use of devices is not strongly supported by academic or medical communities. For example, in a recent interviewwith Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, an investigator of the study explained that, “what we do know about babies playing with iPads is that they don’t transfer what they learn from the iPad to the real world, which is to say that if you give a child an app where they play with virtual Legos, virtual blocks, and stack them and the put real blocks in front of them, they start all over.”

This early finding is consistent with AAP reports from 2016 that contend beginning around 24 months of age children can learn words from live video-chatting, but have trouble transferring screen learning to the 3-dimensional world. Beyond that, for ages two and above, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that screen time is permissible, but that multiple developmental and health concerns exist for young children who use devices for multiple hours per day.

Thus, the NIH has set out explore the positive and negative impacts TVs, phones, computers and tablets are having on our youngest members of society, with a commitment to publish results as soon as possible throughout the decade – in hopes of altering individual behaviors, societal practices and educational systems in real-time. Specifically, scientists want to better understand what device time does to the physical structure of the brain, in addition to social-emotional, cognitive and motor development in a young brain. To do this, a $300 million study has been undertaken by NIH at 21 locations across the U.S.

As of now, the study aims to follow more than 11,000 kids (enrolled during 2018) over the next 10 years. Although primary data has begun to trickle out, much more data will be released in 2019, certain to influence investigations around the world by neuroscientists and developmental specialists. This study could also have almost immediate impacts on how parents and educators alter methods used for interacting with and teaching children.

Nicole Fisher is the founder and President of Health & Human Rights Strategies, a health care and human rights-focused advising firm in Washington, D.C. She is also a health policy advisor on Capitol Hill and expert on health innovation, technology, and brain health - s...